When you think about biblical history, do you give any thought to food?
Not many of us do. It’s easy to study Jesus’ first miracle or the Last Supper without actually wondering why these important events took place at meals. And it’s hard to picture the Last Supper in your mind as anything but the seated feast depicted in Leonardo’s masterpiece.
| Yet a dinnertime environment for such events is not a coincidence, and in-depth study shows that much of what Jesus did and said took place in similar settings. What’s more, we can better understand how the early Christians developed socially, ethically and theologically when we remember that much of this activity took place around a dinner table—in the Greco-Roman reclining style! |
It’s no coincidence that pivotal events and conversations in the life of Jesus and his earliest followers take place over the dinner table. Throughout the Greco-Roman world, meals were a means of creating and solidifying social bonds.
Greco-Roman meals were never taken sitting up—unless you were a respectable woman, in which case you’d rarely be invited to the meal anyway—but rather reclining, as all of the biblical and archaeological evidence proves that most meals were taken Roman style. Reclining.
Many descriptions of the dining rooms, the arrangement of couches, the arrangement of diners and the importance of conversation we can gain a new, more intimate image of Jesus, reclining with a favored disciple who is also reclining, literally at Jesus’ breast.
How much more intimate and focused these meals seem when you read about them with such images in mind!
The textual evidence from the 1st century C.E. and later, it becomes clear how Paul’s work in establishing the new assemblies was made smoother by dining customs of the day.
Invite a friend for lunch. Its good theology
AbideLines 